King Alabaster sank deeper into his throne and went through in his head what Anastacia had said. Sylvia noticed this lapse in his concentration and decided to use it to attack the king. Their last fight had ended in her defeat, but she wasn’t a god back then and there was no Anastacia to help her. The goddess lunged forwards, grabbed the king’s arm and spit molten metal on his face, blinding the necromancer. The goddess’ palm quickly burned through the flesh and bone in Alabaster’s arm and the whole arm snapped off a bit above the wrist. Sylvia threw the separated hand to Anastacia, who had barely realized what was happening and failed to catch it.

“What am I supposed to do with this!” The young necromancer asked and picked the hand up in disgust.

“You are a necromancer, make use of it. I believe that you can…” Sylvia advised before being pulled away by a giant skeletal hand that had risen from the darkness in front of the throne. Unlike normal bones, these were as black as the darkness they were from, and Anastacia couldn’t feel them at all. Almost like they were not made of bone.

The hand slammed Sylvia down and began trying to crush her against the ground. The goddess fought back but was clearly struggling. Anastacia was completely frozen by the feeling of helplessness. Even if she had Alabaster’s severed hand as material, what could she possibly do?

As more gigantic skeletal hands rose from the darkness around Sylvia, Alabaster scraped off the cooled down metal from his face with his remaining hand. His face had been badly burned and he was able to only open his left eye. The injured king stumbled up from his throne and began walking towards Sylvia.

“I can’t believe you’re stupid enough to attack me here.” He taunted the goddess. “Did you think I was defenseless against you since your body no longer seems to work as material? Or did you just run out of options? You need to understand that in here, I am a god!”

The hands began pummeling the trapped goddess but she wasn’t entirely helpless, as a few of the nearest hands began getting entangled by metal wires that tightened around them and crushed their bones. With this, Sylvia freed herself and charged towards Alabaster. Another hand appeared from the darkness above them and swung at Sylvia, who caught it but was left open for another strike from behind. She was thrown at the throne and made a terrible crushing sound when she crashed through the backrest.

By then Anastacia had collected herself a bit and knew she had to do something, anything. As the fight continued, it began to look like it could go bad for Sylvia at any time. Anastacia shot off a few of the separated hand’s bones at its previous owner. Alabaster didn’t even turn to look at her before the bones stopped in the air. The difference in skill was far too big.

“Not now. Let the adults talk.” Alabaster said and turned his focus back at the goddess, who was wrestling with his conjurations in the distance. For each hand Sylvia’s firestorms incinerated, two more rose to challenge her.

“STOP!” Anastacia yelled and tackled the king. She wasn’t able to make him fall over and immediately got pressed at the ground by Alabaster’s necromancy.

“You’re going to stay there and wait until I’m done with the monster. I tried being nice and fair about this, but you two had to go and fuck this up for all of us.” Alabaster said and kicked Anastacia. “But in the end, we’re going to rule the world, whether you like it or not.”

Sylvia let out an ear shattering scream that caused an explosion around her, clearing out all of Alabaster’s thralls for a second. A second which Sylvia used to attack the necromancer himself. With a pair of fiery wings, the goddess launched herself at her target. The attack caused enough of a disturbance for Anastacia to struggle herself free again. The fight continued and Anastacia had to seek cover from all the molten metal flying around, so she huddled behind the broken throne. Still holding the severed hand and trying to figure out a way to attack Alabaster without him being able to interrupt it, Anastacia grabbed a piece of the throne that was lying on the ground. The lump of stone was way too heavy to be thrown by her and she almost gave up on the idea before glancing at the spare hand she had.

“What if I just…” She muttered to herself and placed the stone on the hand and controlled it to see if she could use it to launch the piece of throne at Alabaster. The hand was surprisingly stable and she barely even felt the stone’s weight when moving the hand around. Anastacia peeked over the throne to see if the king was preoccupied enough to not notice her. Before throwing, she closed her eyes to focus on her target’s location more clearly. The lump of rock was launched at a great speed towards the king, who didn’t notice the incoming projectile and got hit in the back. The force of the impact was enough to send him flying. Alabaster landed face first and seemed unconscious, but was clearly still alive. Anastacia ran over to see if she needed to finish the job. As she got closer, she could hear Alabaster trying to speak.

“W..wh...why?” The dying king uttered as blood pooled around him. “We… were supposed to…” His speech was cut short by a fiery explosion above them.

“Anastacia! Take cover!” Sylvia shouted as she fell down towards them.

Anastacia ran for maybe ten meters before tripping and falling flat on the ground. Luckily this was enough as the goddess cratered on the king with enough force to blow his body apart. Sylvia let out a victorious scream as a pillar of fire surrounded her and incinerated any pieces of the corpse around her.

After her celebration, the goddess stumbled towards Anastacia. Her mask had cracked, the iron corset was dented and her skin covered in wounds that oozed molten metal.

“I must apologize for getting slightly carried away in the heat of the fight.” The goddess admitted and sat down next to Anastacia. “I knew you could do it, one way or another.”

“I’m kind of noticing that we’re not back to the outside world yet…” Anastacia pointed out, took out a bandage from a pouch on her belt and offered to wrap some of the goddess’ wounds. “He said that I’d go back when he died…”

“Did he? I fear that may not be the case.” Sylvia said and put out her hand so Anastacia could treat it.

“Wait. SHIT! He said that I would go back to normal, not that I would get out.” Anastacia realized and cursed everyone and everything inside the chamber.

“Fear not, my child. The you on the outside is now free from this bracelet, all thanks to your efforts. Allow me to rest for a while, so I can get both of us out of here, to the plane I usually reside in.” The goddess explained. “We can work on bringing you back together with your body after that. I do think that you need a break from your earthly troubles, if that helps.”